Storytelling must give readers an emotional experience. To bring about emotions in your readers stir in thorny situations that bring up messy emotions. By messy I mean the ones your characters have difficulty managing, perhaps would prefer not to feel or even acknowledge. Messy can also means complex–the character is feeling a troublesome brew of […]
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In case you missed it….
Writerly gatherings from the internets: 1. 20 Amazing Writing Residencies You Should Apply for is here. (This list is from 2014, but the residencies are still viable.) 2. Sadly, the final Scratch magazine is online. The topic, fittingly, is The End. Sigh. 3. How to Master Anything, at Any Age. The 9 concepts […]
Read the rest of this entry »From Michael Cunningham: Literature is an act of seduction
The writer of fiction, no matter how edgy or unorthodox, is stuck with a simple and an unalterable truth. Literature is, inescapably, an act of seduction, whether the writer hopes to seduce millions with a story of an adolescent vampire in love, or a handful of readers, who are willing to take a darker, strange, more […]
Read the rest of this entry »Crutch Words
Check out my article about crutch words over at Insecure Writers Support Group. Sleuthing out your crutch words will make you more secure. Promise!
Read the rest of this entry »In Case You Missed It
Gathering of writerly tidbits from the internets Did you miss BEA this year? Think inspiring writers need to attend? Think again…here’s agent Janet Reid ‘splaining things. Last month I attended a luncheon at the Pennwriters Writing Conference. Lucky me, it was the amazing Jane Friedman talking about using social media to sell books. She’s a […]
Read the rest of this entry »No regrets
Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth […]
Read the rest of this entry »Children with Eyes Wide Open
“Adults look at colors, yet do not see them. Adults perceive shapes, yet do not understand their speech. Adults live in light and from light, yet do not notice it at all. Adults cast long shadows, yet do not play with them. Adults take up much (indeed too much) space, yet never just for once […]
Read the rest of this entry »Poets & Writers 100 Writing Contests That Want Your Work
100 Writing Contests That Want Your Work Whether you write short stories or translate Icelandic nonfiction, Poets & Writers has got you covered with our Writing Contests database, which lists over 100 contests with upcoming deadlines. What are you waiting for? Gival Press Novel Award — A prize of $3,000, publication by Gival Press, and […]
Read the rest of this entry »Cathy Lamb:How To Create Compelling Settings In Your Books.
Build settings that encourage your readers to think, to be inspired, to dream. What if…what if I started painting again? Building again? Writing? Making a collage? What if I changed my life? What if I became a new me?
Read the rest of this entry »Ted Hughes on the power of words
“Because it is occasionally possible, just for brief moments, to find the words that will unlock the doors of all those many mansions inside the head and express something – perhaps not much, just something – of the crush of information that presses in on us, from the way a crow flies over and the […]
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